Roe v. Wade: The landmark abortion ruling could be overturned

A leaked draft of a US Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade — the landmark decision in 1973 that protects a woman's right to an abortion — has thrown the US into a political fervor usually reserved for presidential elections.

The leak, which is now being investigated, would give states the ability to set their own laws on abortion which could include a ban.

‍The relevant data

‍Some context on the topic:

• The abortion rate has been steadily dropping in the US, falling more than 50% since 1980.
• In relative terms the rate has fallen most in teenagers, with the abortion rate down 83% from its peak for women aged 15-19, partly explained by a drop in teenage pregnancy itself.
• Americans views on abortion have been remarkably unchanged in the last 25 years. The latest data from Pew shows 59% of US adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39% believe it should be illegal in all or most cases.
• Around 18% of all pregnancies ended in abortion in 2017 in the US.

Unsurprisingly page hits on the Roe v. Wade Wikipedia page skyrocketed yesterday, becoming the most-widely read page on the English version of the site.